I want to show you from the Scriptures and the revelation we have therein of the Person of God and His sovereignty, that the so called Calvinists or TULIPS do not understand the sovereignty of God. It is a limited sovereignty that they preach.
Psm. 78:41 "Yea, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel." This was the mistake of Israel and it is the mistake of the Tulips.
When God made Adam and Eve, He was the Sovereignty God of eternity. His sovereignty and attributes never change, they are eternal. His will for man was to be for His own glory and their happiness. Rev. 4:11 "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."
In His sovereignty He gave them a choice by telling them that there was evil already around. [obviously, the fall and sin of Lucifer]. God did not in His sovereignty tell them that they COULD not disobey, hence, giving them the power of choice by telling them there was a tree called, “the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” He did decreed the consequences of their sin, but not their sin. They were totally unaware of anything called evil, until they sinned and their eyes were opened, Gen. 3:
To say that God foreknew they would sin is compatible with the omniscience of God. To say that God willed for them to sin is charging God with the source of their sin, which would be blasphemy. Hence, what God foreknows He did not predetermine. A mistake of Calvinists.
Man sinned and lost the likeness of God and marred that image in which he was created. Man in the Fall became morally and spiritually bankrupt totally unable to rectify his fallen condition. God, who is all wise, already in His sovereignty had redemption of man in view, which was the sending of His own Son to died for the sins of fallen man. John 1:29 "The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." He immediately pictured this in the coverings He made for their nakedness, with the coats from a slain animal. This gave man a prelude of His great salvation and Saviour who was to come; prophesied immediately in Gen. 3:15.
God’s will and purpose for man was temporarily delayed with Adam’s wilful sin. God is now working out His will and purpose for fallen man in redemption.
God’s will for Adam, depended on Adam’s obedience which he did not perform. This was a sovereign right that God gave to him. To obey would have glorified God, to disobey would dishonour Him.
Just as clearly as God did not will that man should sin, He, likewise says, "The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us_ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance." 2 Peter 3:9
Again, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." 1 Tim. 2:4
God, as in Adam, likewise gives man by His sovereign rights the freedom of choice as to whether to obey or disobey the gospel. By the word “obey” meaning, to hearken, to giving full attention,” to the message of salvation. "And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him; Heb. 5:9 This verse undeniably is speaking of a condition to eternal salvation." This does not mean that man is sovereign over his own destiny, but it does mean that a sovereign God has given man those rights to listen to the Son or not. Hence taking man out of the hands of a puppeteer. Jesus put the same thing this way, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life". John 5:24
What does this have to do with TULIPS? Simply put this, they limit the will and sovereignty of God to an elect few. It is not God’s will that sinners perish. He sent Christ into the world to die for sinners 1 Tim. 1:15 “.....came into the world to save sinners,” and yet they limit and restrict God salvation to a few. That is limiting the sovereignty of God. If their concept of a sovereign God works all things after His will, and that will is that all be saved, why then could He not have saved all men?
When God sent His Son to die that the world through Him might be saved [John 3:17], and then, sent the Spirit to reprove the world of sin that they might be saved, then in His sovereign right give man the rights to believe or not on His Son, that is not limiting the sovereignty of God. And all those that do believe is a glory to God. A wilful and wayward sinner has come back to God.
God wills all men to be saved, but has only selected a few, and decreed that the others go to hell, is a travesty of the sovereignty of God.
I believe in a God whose sovereignty is not limited.